Oregon State Archives 800 Summer Street NE Salem, OR 97310 503-373-0701 ext. 1 sos.oregon.gov/archives GOVERNOR OSWALD D. WEST ADMINISTRATION January 11, 1911 to January 12, 1915 Inaugural Message, 1911 Source: Oregon Messages and Documents, 1909-1910, Inaugural Message, Salem, Oregon, Willis S. Duniway, State Printer, 1911. Message Of OSWALD WEST Governor of Oregon, To the Twenty- Sixth Legislative Assembly Regular Session 1911 Gentlemen of the Legislature: Under the Constitution it becomes my duty as Governor, and I deem it a high honor and privilege, to inform you, insofar as I may, of conditions in the State and its institutions and to make such recommendations or suggestions concerning legislation as I may deem fitting or necessary. But before passing to the discussion of these matters in detail, I desire to express to the people of this great State, through you, their duly elected representatives, my all-embracing and deeply sincere thanks for the high honor which they have conferred upon me. I consider that this honor was shown me because the people of Oregon had confidence in my sincerity and my integrity and believed that I, as their Governor, would never forget that I was their public servant, whose duty it was to do everything in my power to promote the public good and advance the general prosperity of the State. And I desire to promise them now that throughout my term of office I will keep this fact ever before my mind as a guiding star and a stay in time of stress and trial. Of the people, I intend by my every act to serve the people. Just as their good is my good, and their prosperity my own, so would their misfortune be a cross and a sorrow to me, and I pledge them now my vow and my oat that, with the help of Almighty God, I will be a faithful keeper of their trust so that at the end I may be given that greatest econium possible for a public officials—“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Oregon is now well entered upon an era of wonderful progress and development. Great industries and commercial enterprises are bringing added people and comfortable homes to broaden the limits of our cities. A flood of immigration is peopling the rural districts with prosperous farms and still farther pushing back the forest from the doorsteps of the towns. New railroads are binding the State closer and closer together and on every hand the hum of industry shows progress, prosperity, and success. I mention these well-known conditions in order to doubly impress upon you, gentlemen of the legislature, the serious fact that we are building not for the present alone but for the future as well. The public institutions of the State are in good condition but they, with all departments of the State government, are growing and thoughtful attention must be given to future needs as well as present requirements. OUR SYSTEM OF TAXATION The power to tax being essentially legislative in its nature it follows that in the absence of constitutional limitations the power of the legislature as to matters of taxation is plenary and absolute. The framers of our State Constitution realized the extent to which this power might be carried and, as a protection, hedged the legislature about with certain constitutional limitations which required that all taxation should be uniform and equal. By uniformity they meant that all property similarly situated should be taxed at the same rate and in the same manner, and by equality they meant that the burden of taxation should be so distributed that each taxpayer might contributed in proportion to his property and feel neither more or less inconvenience from his share of payment than every other person experienced. They were doomed to disappointment, however, for instead of bringing about an equal distribution of the burdens of taxation these constitutional provisions became breastworks behind which the public service and other corporations of the State could dodge and escape being hit for the payment of a just share of the cost of conducting our State government. Taxation was undoubtedly fairly equal in early days in this State, for at that time most of our wealth consisted of lands and live stock, which were easily listed and valued, but with the rapid growth and development of the country, the coming of “big business” with its public service corporations and their “franchises” and “intangible values”, conditions have changed and call for new methods of distributing the burdens of taxation. “New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth.” The taxpayers of this State have known for years that our general property tax was “uncouth” but for some unknown reason have never, until within the last few year, taken steps to remodel it. The first good move was that made by the legislature of 1905 when it provided for the appointment of a board of commissioners for the purpose of examining and reporting on all matters of assessment and taxation. This board made a most exhaustive report to the Governor and prepared and recommended for passage a number of bills and constitutional amendments, which in their opinion would give the people a more efficient and equitable system of taxation. A number of the bills proposed by the board were passed by the legislature of 1907, but its constitutional amendments and bill for creating a State Tax Commission failed to pass. The legislature of 1909, however, took up these measures and after making a few changes passed them. The constitutional amendments, of course, had to be and were submitted to the people at the recent election. They failed to pass, however, and their failure to pass was due largely to the fact that the people were led to believe that their passage would result in many departures from our present system of taxation and open up the way for all sorts of “isms”. The measures in fact were most conservative and had the endorsement of nearly every tax expert in the country, and while opening the way for a most equitable system of taxation, one which would compel each to contribute a just share toward the support of the government, they threw ample constitutional protection around each and every class of property. While the people were voting down these alleged “radical” amendments they voted for and passed the so- called “poll tax” amendment which wiped out all existing constitutional limitations and restrictions but reserved to the people the right to vote on all measures pertaining to taxation. In the absence of express constitutional limitations the legislative power in matters of taxation is unlimited and extends to everything; it acknowledges no limits and “may be carried even to the extent of exhaustion and destruction, thus becoming in its exercise a power to destroy.” All limitations and restrictions in our State Constitution having been removed, so far as the people are concerned, the only thing which stands in the way of an abuse of the power to tax is the integrity and sense of justice of the people and the restrictions found in the Constitution of the Untied States. Our Federal Constitution provides that no State shall make or enforce a law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States and that no state shall deny any person the equal protection of the laws or permit the taking of property without due process of law. This new amendment will no doubt prove beneficial, however, because it will open the way for any and all reforms which were aimed at through the two defeated amendments, but it is objectionable in that it provides that no tax measure passed by the legislature can become effective, not even a meritorious emergency measure, until it has hung on the hook for two years and has been approved by the people. This provision was no doubt inserted for fear that in the absence of constitutional restrictions unjust measures might be passed by the legislature. This was undoubtedly a wise precaution, but it was unnecessary to go to extremes. The people would have been given ample protection if it had simply provided that no tax measure passed by the legislature should carry an emergency clause. This would have given the people a chance to examine all tax measures passed by the legislature, invoke the referendum on the objectionable ones, and permit the taking effect without delay of all those which were meritorious. While this amendment may be open to some criticism it nevertheless opens the way for tax reform and as it will permit the adoption of any equitable system of taxation the people may choose to adopt there remains no reason on earth why we should not without further delay adopt the most progressive system to be found in any State of the Union. Past legislatures have laid the ground work for a good system and it now rests with you to complete it. The first and most important step is to provide for the separation of the sources of State and local revenue. When this is done the State will raise its revenue principally from public service corporations, license fees, inheritances or such other subjects as the legislature or the people may think could best be handled by the State Tax Commission. This system would give each county complete home rule in the matter of taxation; and unless the sources of State revenue failed to produce enough to cover the needs of the State the counties would not be called upon to contribute anything towards the support of the State and would be concerned only in raising sufficient revenue to cover county expenses.